Stephen King is so popular that he has sold 350 million copies of his books.

In 1999, fans of his chilling stories were stunned when the author found himself at the centre of his own nightmare scenario. King was walking along Route 5 in Center Lovell, Maine, when he was hit by a minivan.

King nearly died. His injuries, a collapsed right lung, multiple leg fractures and a broken hip kept him in hospital for three weeks. Earlier that year, the author had finished most of From a Buick 8, a novel in which a character dies after being struck by a car. After five operations in 10 days, King resumed work on his memoir On Writing. Two years later, the author suffered pneumonia as a result of his lung being punctured in the accident.

During this time, his wife decided to redesign his studio and King got the idea for his novel Lisey's Story. In 2002, the best-selling author in the world announced that he would stop writing, but he changed his mind, and after Lisey's Story was published in 2006, Duma Key followed earlier this year.

Born in 1947, King was just two when his father deserted the family after going out for cigarettes. This left King's mother Nellie to raise him and his adopted elder brother David by herself.

King took an early interest in horror comics, sold his first short story in 1967, and got his big break in 1973 with his novel Carrie. King became so discouraged while trying to write the story of the girl with psychic powers that he threw an early draft in the bin, but wife Tabitha urged him to continue.

The paperback rights eventually earned $400,000. King owns two houses, one in Bangor, Maine, and one in Center Lovell, and he and his wife have three children and three grandchildren. King's two sons are both published authors.

The author is a fan of the Boston Red Sox and often attends baseball games.

Many of King's books have been made into films but two adaptations stand out. The first is The Shining, the 1980 movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a writer who moves to a secluded hotel as a caretaker.

Torrance plans to write his new novel there, but is distracted by mysterious goings-on in the hotel and slowly goes mad.

Filming took place at Pinewood and Elstree studios and the set for the Overlook Hotel was then one of the largest ever built.

The film did well commercially but it is understood that King did not feel Kubrick had created a good adaptation of his novel.

Rob Reiner's 1990 adaptation of King's novel Misery was also a stunning success at the box office, and Kathy Bates's portrayal of psychotic former nurse Annie Wilkes won her an Oscar.

James Caan plays novelist Paul Sheldon, who is caught in a blizzard while driving home from Colorado. He is rescued by Wilkes, who is an obsessive fan of his Misery series, and has no intention of letting him go. She shatters his ankles with a sledgehammer, though in the book, she cuts off his foot with an axe.

King is thought to have been pleased with the film, which was based on a screenplay penned by William Goldman.